Welcome to Let Them Feel It: How to Attract Clients Without a Pitch - a series of weekly modules to help you get paid to do the work you love.
This course covers mindset, strategy and tactics to explore the ways that you can create an ecosystem of paid work to support your heart-led vision.
It’s based on my experience of running a social enterprise for over twelve years and attracting funding of over £750K.
Previous modules:
🎓 Module 01: Connection vs Preaching
🎓 Module 02: Mind Your Language
Quick Note: If you’d like to buy the full course and gain access to weekly Q&A you can get it here👇🏼
Starting with a story…
..is one of the most powerful things you can do as a coach, entrepreneur or public speaker!
Not a pitch.
Not a clever metaphor.
And for love's sake, not ever a five-step process or a fancy graphic.
Start with something real. Something that happened. Something that moved you or made you laugh or cracked your heart open a little.
Because stories are what people remember.
You can give someone a ten-point framework, and they’ll forget it by the end of the day. But tell them a story that makes them feel something, and they’ll carry it with them for years.
The most impact I’ve ever had didn’t come from explaining. It came from sharing.
Sharing what I’d seen. What I’d felt. What I’d lived through.
Being real has helped me connect way more than being right.
Story Time
Another time when working with a group in prison, I told them about when I’d had a breakdown.
I’d been running myself ragged trying to manage everything all at once. After a long-haul flight, a week of groups in prison, and conversations with investors, I was attending an interview in London for a mentoring role.
Buzz went the door as I let myself out. I leaned against the wall on this busy London street and sobbed. Nothing made me feel better. Not the blue sky, the sunny day nor anything I knew about how thought works.
I felt useless. Finished.
“I’m rubbish,” I said to myself.
That day was the start of a breakdown. I lost all perspective. I couldn’t function at any level. I could only just get myself home, where I lay on the sofa for the next two weeks.
“Wow,” one of the guys said when I told them that story. “We thought you had it all together, Miss.”
“Not at all,” I said. “No one does.”
I wondered if I’d made a mistake in telling them such a vulnerable thing.
I wondered if they’d lose respect for me.
I didn’t need to worry.
As time went on, several of the guys told me that the ‘breakdown’ story had helped them more than anything. It made them realise they don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to have it all together.
They saw that if I could have a breakdown and let myself get over it without worrying, then they could have their lows and they would bounce back.
They saw that they didn’t have to be strong.
Over To You
I realised that people prefer real to polished.
It lands when you are vulnerable, and even more when you can demonstrate that you bounced back, showing that vulnerability is not a weakness.
Now, to be clear, at meetings with potential clients I didn’t stand up in a boardroom and say all that. I didn’t open with, “Let me tell you about the time I cried in London.” But that feeling? That came with me into every conversation after that.
And when I did tell the story to someone—when I told it to a group of facilitators I was training—it connected.
Not because the words were perfect, but because I was coming from truth.
From something real.
And that? People can feel.
We often try to explain too much. We try to get people to “understand” our work or this idea or a shift we’ve had. And we end up sounding like we’re teaching a class they didn’t sign up for.
But if you start with a story—one that means something to you—you don’t have to explain anything.
The story does the work. The feeling does the work.
Because when you share something that moved you, something that shaped how you see the world, people feel it. Even if they don’t get it yet, they feel something shift.
Here’s another example.
Not long ago, I was on a call with a potential client. She was very analytical. Very much in her head. Brilliant woman, but everything was data and logic and strategy.
Now, I didn’t go into that meeting thinking, I know what I’ll do—I’ll talk about cheese. But that’s exactly what I ended up doing.
I told her about a moment I’d had just a day or two before, sitting at home, deciding I wanted cheese and crackers for dinner. And I made a proper occasion of it—little chutneys, a variety of cheeses, a whole spread.
And as I sat there, eating this joyful meal, I found myself kicking my feet with happiness. I was just … delighted. So light. So free.
My husband walked in and said, “Are you okay?”
And I said, “I’m having so much fun!”
That story—that silly, simple little moment—landed more than anything else I could have said to that potential client.
She looked at me and said, “I can hear the liberation in your voice. I want that.”
And that was it. That was the bridge. She wanted to hire me.
You don’t have to come up with the perfect story. It doesn’t have to be polished or dramatic or profound.
It just has to be true. And it has to matter to you.
Because the stories that live in you, the ones that come to mind when you’re listening, not the ones you rehearse, are the ones that land.
And I’ll be honest, sometimes I’ve thought, Is this story too silly? Too personal? Too random? But the ones that come from a fresh, honest place? They always connect.
Even if the other person doesn’t quite know why.
And if you’re thinking, Well, I don’t have a story like that, I promise you: You do.
You’ve lived things. You’ve seen things. You’ve felt things that cracked you open or brought you peace or woke you up.
Start there.
You don’t need to teach anyone anything. You just need to share what’s true for you, in a way that feels real.
Let your stories lead.
Let them open the door.
Let the stories do the work—so you don’t have to push.
Action Step
Choose one personal story that shaped the way you work or see the world. Jot down (or record yourself saying) the 3 key parts: what happened, what shifted, and what you saw. No need to polish—just get it down.
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